There exist certain forms of content receipt and content viewing devices available to consumers. These include television “set top boxes” made available by media distribution companies. Well known versions in Australia include the Foxtel set top box and the Optus set top box. These devices are limited to receipt and delivery of content usually delivered via a cable arrangement.
Also known are certain forms of “internet appliance” which receive digital content typically over the internet for delivery, usually via streaming, to television display units and the like. The “Apple TV” appliance is an example of such a device in current usage within Australia.
It is also known to stream digital content over the internet to personal computers enlisting the aid of file sharing services such as BitTorrent. Such services and their protocols are highly insecure, not suited to streaming, often take a long time to start playback and are not conducive to features such as “jump” to a nominated point in the content.
A problem with these current devices and mechanisms for receipt and delivery of digital content is that current internet infrastructure has variable upload and download speeds and it can be difficult, and in some instances impossible particularly for consumers in a household environment, to reliably receive real time or near real time content, especially high definition and ultra-high definition content or large file content On Demand.
Many if not all current Internet video distribution systems use Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) technology to overcome the problem of video distribution On Demand via the Internet. However, ABR reduces bit rate and definition and degrades the user experience.
Separately, and in some cases in addition, the choice of content available to the consumer is limited by the proprietary nature of the appliance.
Further, current mechanisms for local control of the content and its delivery and display are not intuitive or “user friendly”
It is an object of the present invention to address or at least ameliorate some of the above disadvantages or provide a useful alternative.
Notes
The term “comprising” (and grammatical variations thereof) is used in this specification in the inclusive sense of “having” or “including”, and not in the exclusive sense of “consisting only of”.
The above discussion of the prior art in the Background of the invention, is not an admission that any information discussed therein is citable prior art or part of the common general knowledge of persons skilled in the art in any country.